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My Search for the Perfect First Reloading Press

What you’re about to read is the result of a lot of reading, learning, and comparison shopping. The final product was the formation of an opinion as to the best choice of a first reloading press for me. I expect that if you go through the process carefully, you’ll find the best press that meets your needs, but I don’t necessarily expect you to arrive at the same conclusion that I did. I’m not trying to persuade you to agree with choice that I made. There are a lot of good presses made by lot of good brands. Each of them has the potential to be the absolute best option for someone. I present this article to you because there are a lot of people in the same place I find myself in — relatively new shooters with no previous reloading experience who have come to the conclusion that reloading is a valuable skill for a prepper to have. Making the right choice about where to jump into the reloading craft is an important decision.

My Story

Last summer, after waiting two months to get an order of 9mm and .380 from my local ammo fabricator, I decided that it would be in my best interest to learn how to reload. I just couldn’t face another year of ammo shortages and escalating prices. Sandy and I didn’t shoot nearly as much last year as we did in 2012. Money was tight for us and ammo was hard to find. Shooters who weren’t sitting on a big stockpile of ammo curtailed their practice sessions because they didn’t know when they’d be able to restock their supply — and at what price. Sandy and I have set a goal of shooting more in 2014. Having the ability to make our own ammo goes a long way toward ensuring that we’ll be able to keep that resolution.

Sandy’s only stipulation was to make sure there was no exclusion in our homeowner’s insurance policy that would cause a claim to be denied because we make ammo in our home. I called them and was told that reloading for my own personal use would have no impact on my insurance coverage or rates so long as I limited my supply of gunpowder to less than 20 pounds. You should check with your insurance company to see if the same holds true for you.

Single-Stage Presses — The “Training Wheels” of Reloading

OK then, what kind of press should I buy? Conventional wisdom says that you learn the craft of reloading on a single-stage press — a press where you batch process one cartridge at a time, performing one reloading function at a time — in order to thoroughly learn all of the stages of the reloading process at a safe and manageable pace. Making ammo is inherently dangerous, but it is completely safe if you approach it with sanity and wisdom. The object for newbie reloaders is not to make ammo as fast as possible, but to learn how to not maim or kill yourself as a result of your ammo-making.

There are a lot of great single-stage presses on the market and they can be the most economical presses you can buy, so there is a lot of appeal to go with a single-stage. And the noble single-stage press is the way to go for the highest precision in reloading. Many competitive shooters and hunters hand craft each round on a single-stage for the ultimate in control and quality. Some of these presses include the RCBS Rock Chucker, the Forster Co-Ax, the Redding Big Boss, and the Hornady Lock-N-Load Classic. Great, great presses. I’d like one of each. And if you’re on a really tight budget, Lee make the Lee Reloader for less than 30 bucks. Obviously not in the same league as the others, but it’s enough to get you started.

But the downside of any single-stage rig is production speed. Eventually I would learn the process well enough that production speed would become an issue, especially when it comes to reloading for handguns. It takes multiple pulls of the reloading press lever to complete one round of ammunition on a single-stage press. Production speed isn’t an issue for those who reload for hunting rifles because they don’t shoot as many rounds in a year as I blow through in an hour of shooting handguns. Single-stage is the best way to go for high-precision hunting rifle ammo, but the online reloading forums are full of guys who say that if they had to load all their handgun ammo on a single-stage they’d rather give up reloading and just buy factory ammo. Those guys say that a progressive press is the way to go for handgunners.

Progressive Presses — The Speed Demons of the Reloading World

Once you’ve completed the first cycle, a progressive press completes a round of ammo with every pull of the lever. Instead of working on just one cartridge at a time and doing just one step of the reloading process at a time, a progressive press does it all at once. All of the dies are mounted in a circle with a cartridge in place under each die. Every pull of the handle engages each cartridge with the die it’s positioned under and then advances all the cartridges to the next die position. After a cartridge has made it through the entire circuit, a completed round pops out and a new empty case takes its place.

Once you get the hang of it, you can crank out 400 or more rounds of ammo per hour with a progressive press. Equip one with an automatic case feeder and bullet feeder and you’ll easily be able to do 600 or more rounds per hour. As you can well imagine, progressive presses, especially those that are tricked out with all the bells and whistles, are considerably more expensive than a simple single-stage press, but time is money, too. What is it worth to me to be able to make 600 rounds in an hour on a progressive press versus maybe 30 rounds on a single-stage press? Based on that, I started my search with a long, hard look at the progressives.

The seduction of lightning fast production rates was too much to resist. Despite the chorus of old-timers who were saying to start with a single-stage and work up from there, I decided to start my shopping with the progressive presses. Here are the contenders:

Dillon — If you’re in the market for a progressive press and you don’t give serious consideration to a Dillon, you’re doing yourself a major disservice. I consider them to be the gold standard of reloading machinery. If there is a cult among people who reload, it’s made up of owners of Dillon presses. Dillon has a rabidly loyal clientele, some of whom tend to regard any other brand of equipment as not worthy of consideration. Dillon earned their reputation by consistently manufacturing top-notch machinery, backed by the best “no B.S.” warranty in the industry.You can’t buy a Dillon just anywhere. They control their marketing channels pretty tightly. If I were buying a new Dillon, I’d get mine from the website of top competitive shooter Brian Enos. His site is packed with solid info on the products and he has some kit bundles that are carefully thought out.Having said all of that, and believing in my heart the Dillon Precision sets the industry standard for reloading presses, I didn’t buy a Dillon for my first press. I looked longingly at their whole product line, drooling over their sturdiness and reliability. But the workhorse of their line, the RL 550B, doesn’t auto-index (automatically advance the cartridges being worked on from one die station to the next). For a progress press to not perform this automation function seemed to be contrary to the whole purpose of a progressive press. The next step up (the XL 650) and the one after that (the Super 1050) both auto-index, but they were just too far out of my beginner’s price range.

But still wanting a Dillon, I dialed my sights down to their Square Deal B. This is a press that is just for reloading straight-walled handgun ammunition. Since that’s what I shoot, it looked like a real contender. But one of the significant disadvantages of it was that it doesn’t do rifle cartridges at all — just straight-walled handgun ammo. While I only shoot handguns now, I wanted to leave open the possibility of reloading for rifles in the future. Another big strike against the Square Deal B is that it is the only press that uses proprietary dies. The dies for this press aren’t interchangeable with any other press, nor can you use standard dies, even those made by Dillon, with this press. I didn’t like that. Time to broaden my search to other options.

Hornady—Hornady is best known for their great bullets, but they also make a lot of high-quality reloading tools and equipment. Their progressive press is called the Lock-N-Load AP, and it’s a real honey. One reviewer who did an excellent comparison of progressives from Dillon, Hornady, and Lee (click here for How I Spent My Winter and Then Some). You really should read it and see how your values line up with his, but I’ll cut to the chase and reveal that he ultimately chose the Hornady LNL. And I almost did, too. All impressions I have of it is that it is a technically more advanced press than the rock-solid Dillon, and that it has some reliability issues that come with that distinction. Sandy actually encouraged me to buy one of these while we were at our favorite outdoor specialty store, but I wasn’t far enough along in my comparison shopping process to feel confident with this decision. When I did spring for my first press, I didn’t buy this one, but there very well may be a Hornady LNL in my future. They have tons of appeal.

Lee— Let me say one good thing about Lee’s two progressive presses: they’re inexpensive. The Lee Pro 1000 can be found for under $200, and the Lee Precision Load Master goes for close to $250. But my experience was that on the forums I was seeing far more complaints and problems with them than anything else. Lots of folks, even those who loved other Lee products, had some less-than-splendid remarks about the Lee progressives. They have some very loyal fans, but the negatives seemed to far out-weigh the positives for these machines. A fool doesn’t learn from his mistakes. A smart man does learn from his mistakes. A wise man learns from the mistakes of others and doesn’t make them himself. I want to be a wise man. I didn’t give the Lee progressives any serious consideration.

RCBS— This was the last of the major contenders I looked at. Best known for their outstanding single-stage presses, RCBS also make a progressive called the Pro 2000. I didn’t do nearly as much research on this one as I did with any of the others because the price stopped me in my tracks. With a list price of $777 for the auto-indexing version of this press ($694 for the manually indexed model), I was in the deep end of the pool. I have no doubt that RCBS makes a fine progressive. It may even be superior. But it was too far out of my price range to give it any consideration for a first-time purchase. Maybe some day.

All of this research in progressive presses left me with no clear winner between Dillon and Hornady, but one thing it did succeed in doing is convince me that I really wasn’t ready to plunge into a progressive as my first press. Others have done it with good results, but one thing that I kept reading in the forums were comments by actual owners and users that progressive presses require a fair amount of mechanical aptitude to set up, to operate, and to maintain. As Clint Eastwood’s character Dirty Harry was prone to say, “A man’s gotta know his limitations.” This is one of mine. I don’t tinker with machinery. Not with good results, at least. I barely know which end of a hammer you’re supposed to hold on to. The preponderance of comments about the need for mechanical aptitude caused me to abandon my quest for a progressive press. For now.

Turret Presses — The Middle Ground

If a single-stage press was too slow and a progressive press was either too expensive or beyond my ability to troubleshoot and maintain, was reloading out of the question for me? Thankfully, no. There is an intermediate class of presses that address some of the limitations of a single-stage without introducing the complexity and expense of a progressive. I’m talking about turret presses.

Like a single-stage press, a turret press only works with one cartridge at a time, but like a progressive, all the dies you need for the complete reloading process are installed and ready for use. You don’t need to swap out dies to go from one reloading step to the next. They’re already there, mounted on a turret that can be rotated to place each die over the cartridge that you’re working on in turn. This means that you don’t have to batch-process your cartridges like you do with a single-stage. You can do all the steps to go from an empty case to a completed round of ammunition before you need to swap in a new case.

Production speed can be a lot higher with a turret press than with a single-stage, but you can choose to operate a turret press in single-stage mode if you want to. (For that matter, you can operate a progressive like a single-stage, which might be a good idea in some situations, but still doesn’t overcome my personal reservations against going directly to a progressive.)

So the search was on for the best turret press for my needs. There are a number to choose from with offerings from Lyman, Redding, RCBS, Lee, and others.

I went shopping at my favorite outfitting shop and the reloading specialist gave me a strong sales pitch for the Lyman T-Mag 2 press kit. You can buy a number of single-stage or turret presses in kit form, with many of the the basic tools that you’ll need for reloading bundled together. The downside of buying these kits is that the tools they include are the cheapest and most basic versions available. Most reloaders will want to upgrade to better stuff almost immediately. My salesman said that if I was looking to buy a turret in a reloading kit, he’d recommend either the RCBS Deluxe reloading kit because he felt the kit contained some good tools — things that you wouldn’t have to go out and replace with the tools you really wanted anytime soon — or the Lyman Deluxe Expert kit, because it had a good case trimming tool. I ultimately decided against going with a kit and assembled my own selection of individual tools instead.

When I was considering a progressive press, I read a lot of negative about Lee’s progressives. This led to an unfavorable opinion of the company in general, but as I did more research on turret presses, the name that kept popping up was the Lee Classic Turret. Lee makes a couple of different turret presses, so don’t get confused by their names. The lesser of the two is called the Lee Deluxe turret press. There’s really nothing “deluxe” about it. The better of the two is the Lee Classic turret press. The word “classic” might lead you to believe that it is an older design, but it’s actually a newer and improved version of the Deluxe turret.

Among the many reviews that I read on the Lee Classic Turret was a great series of articles on the website RealGuns.com. Highly recommended reading. The author pointed out that the turrets on most turret presses are mounted with a single bolt in the center of the turret. The dies are arranged on the outside edge of the turret and the ram on the press engages the dies on this outer ring. That design essentially makes most turrets a “C” press, which is a weaker and less accurate configuration. By comparison, the Lee Classic Turret is supported by three rods in a triangular pattern on the outside edge of the turret, and the dies are mounted much closer to the center of the turret. This design allows for a more compact machine, and it also focuses the force of the reloader’s ram closer to the center of the turret.

Besides being impressed with the smart design of the turret on the Lee Classic, it also is the only turret press that auto-indexes, which is to say that as you pull the handle, the machine automatically rotates the turret to align the next die over your cartridge. This feature is common on progressive presses, but Lee makes the only turret presses that auto-index. The auto-indexing capability can propel your production rate to 200 rounds per hour or more. That’s not too shabby for a humble turret press.

You will be hard pressed to find a bad review of the Lee Classic Turret Press from someone who has actually used one. Sure, the web is full of Lee bashers who have a bad impression of their progressive presses or reloading snobs who view their budget prices as being indicative of inferior products, but Lee Precision is a company that has dedicated itself to giving you the best bang for the buck. So while you’ll see a lot of people who talk trash about Lee, you will also be amazed at the number of glowing reviews of the Lee Classic Turret. These reviews widely recommend it as the best press for a beginner to start with.

The Bottom Line

I’m glad that I kept an open mind and didn’t let negative reviews of one segment of a company’s product line sour me on the whole store. I chose the Lee Classic Turret for my first reloading press and I’m confident that I made the best choice for my budget and skill level. Your mileage may vary, but if you’ve decided that now is the time for you to get into reloading, I’d recommend you take a long, hard look at the Lee Classic Turret.

Related

13 Responses to My Search for the Perfect First Reloading Press

I have been reloading for years. Started with the Lee (lee loader )for shotgun shells and have something of almost every brand out there. For single loads I use an RCBS rock chucker or a Lee single classic. An old CH 4 and my Dillon 550 for larger quantities. I have very few issues with any of them. The bottom line is not to brag about what I have just to say most manufacture some good equipment.
The secret to all equipment is maintenance. Keep it clean, keep all fixtures tight,keep everything that needs lubed, lubed. Use good quality accessories, clean work area,clean brass and keep your power and primers dry.
You bought a good reloader for a good price and Lee has some really good dies.
Happy loading and don’t forget safety glasses.

Brian — +1 to everything you said. Every U.S.-made reloader manufacturer makes some good equipment. That’s how they stay in business. I would be tickled to own a Hornady, a Dillon, a Redding, an RCBS, a Forster… you name it. And I’m very happy with my decision to go with the Lee Classic Turret for my training rig. I don’t foresee ever out-growing it. I’ll always have a use for it, even if/when I upgrade to a progressive of some sort. Like Patrick Sweeney says in his book “Reloading for Handguns,” presses don’t go bad sitting on the shelf. Thanks for weighing in, and for the reminder about safety glasses. If more people heard messages like that more often, we’d all be a lot better off.

Jim,
Thanks for the compliment and the question. Personally, I opted to go for buying individual components instead of buying a kit. One piece that I knew for sure that I would want to replace is the beam scale. I wanted to go digital, and there are some decent low-cost digital scales available. Many kits, including the one you specifically asked about, include case prep tools that only apply to rifle reloaders. Since I am planning on just reloading handgun ammo (for the time being, at least — subject to change without notice), I didn’t want to pay for tools that I had no intention of using.
That said, this is a great kit at a great price. The Pro Auto-Disk powder measure is a keeper for sure, as are the powder measure riser and the large and small Safety Primers. Throw in the Lee reloading manual and it’s a real nice package. If the parts and pieces meet your needs, I don’t see how you can go wrong with this kit at this price.

Thanks for the reply.
I plan on loading 5.56 for rifle, as well as .38 and 9mm for pistol. I also planned on getting a digital scale, so it sounds like the kit is worth it.
What else will I need and where are good places to purchase those items?
Thanks for the help. Much appreciated.

Jim,
What else do you need to reload? Get your wallet out. You’re going to need it. While you will save money by reloading, you have to sink a lot into it to be able to start saving. I’m going to turn your question and this answer into a blog (or a series of blogs), but here’s my short answer.
The absolute necessities: Reloading manuals (more than one — the more the better), calipers for measuring your cartridges and components, a set of dies for every caliber that you will be reloading, case tumbler and cleaning medium, and a sturdy reloading bench. Nice to have: cartridge gauges for every caliber that you reload, a bullet puller, reloading trays, and storage cabinets. That’s just the equipment for reloading. You’ll also need to buy the components for reloading — primers, powder, projectiles, and brass (if you haven’t been collecting your own).
The good news is that the $200 reloading kit that you originally asked me about it a great deal. Lots of bang for the buck. The bad news is that the final bill will be way closer to $1,000. Given that, does reloading make sense? Not for everyone. Not for people who don’t shoot a lot. But I decided to do it because I hate (HATE!) being the victim of an ammo shortage. I hate going to my local vendor and seeing the shelves picked clean. Or seeing limited quantities of ammo at grossly inflated prices. I didn’t get into reloading because I’m a hunter or target sports enthusiast. I got into it because I’m a prepper. I want to be able to have an adequate supply of the things I need if (when) it is no longer available to the general public.
Like I said, you will eventually see all of this expanded upon in a series of blogs. I’ve gotten a lot of traffic to this site from people doing searches on reloading, so I know that there is an interest. Thanks for the question.
And as for where I bought my stuff, after doing a ton of comparison shopping I bought most of my reloading equipment from Amazon. They won’t always be the cheapest, but they were at the time that I bought my rig.

Very good. Please post a note here when you complete that blog. I was afraid it would end up costing a lot to get started. I think I am going to try and get with my buddy who reloads and try to learn a little before I take the $1000 leap.
Besides the initial cost, I have three things that worry me:
1. I won’t have the knack for it since I’m a mechanical moron (though I’m trying to learn more do it yourself skills)
2. I will buy everything only to find that I won’t have the time to use it.
3. If I overcome both of the above, I will still be in the same boat when it comes to ammo shortages because, from what I understand, reloading components dry up along with the ammo in a situation like we just had/have, so either way, you either stock up on ammo, or stock up on reloading components. I have recently adjusted my “inventory levels” to allow me even more cushion. I have no idea what quantity of powder, primers, etc, is legal or safe to store so that may be a factor as well.
Thanks again for the help. Feel free to wait to address my concerns in your future blogs, just please don’t forget to notify me, as I too, found this blog through a search on reloading.

Choosing a reloading press is really very important if you are a reloader. I am reloading my ammo for more 3 years. For me if you want a single stage reloading press then RCBS Rock Chucker Supreme Press will be best but if you are searching for a turret press then you can choose Lee or Hornady.

Thomas — I agree that the decision about which press to use is a critical one. There are a lot of factors to consider, and each user will have a different set of priorities and values that will guide their decision. I decided to go with the Lee Classic turret press as my first press. I wanted to start out with loading handgun ammo, which meant that I would be producing a lot more rounds than if I were loading for a high-precision hunting rifle. That personal priority eliminated single-stage presses from my consideration. Since I was a beginner with very limited mechanical aptitude (hard to admit, but sometimes you just have to own up to your weaknesses), wisdom prevailed and steered me away from the flashy and more-complex progressive rigs. That left the middle ground of turret presses. You can run it in single-stage mode as you learn the reloading process, then use the turret automation capabilities when you’re ready to go into production runs. I was on a low budget, but I wanted a quality piece of equipment that I would want to hang onto, even when I’m ready to move up to a progressive.

Those are the reasons that I chose the Lee Classic turret press as my first reloading press. While it’s a machine that I can easily recommend to others, I would strongly urge every prospective reloader to go through the same time of decision process that I used, matching their own personal plans, goals, priorities, abilities, and budget against the many fine product offerings that are on the market right now. As a Lee owner, you will NEVER hear me knocking an RCBS or Dillon or Hornady or Lyman or whatever, because all of them are very good machines. If you’re not on a limited budget, run buck wild and buy all of them! But if you’re on money is as tight as mine is, the key is to find the press that is best for you and the kind of reloading that you plan to do.

I’d like to add that I’ve visited your reloading website, http://www.ReloadingPresso.com and I loved it! Expert commentary and advice without being overly technical. I’ve bookmarked it and subscribed. A highly recommended and useful site for readers of this blog. Thanks for writing. I really appreciate you sharing your comments and expertise.

Brett — I’m glad you liked the article. I worked hard on it. As for other stuff that you need beyond just the press, you can go hog wild or you can stick with the basics. I recommend the latter approach at first.

The first piece of equipment that you’ll need is a couple of good reloading manuals. Get more than one. There are a number of good ones — Hornady, Lyman, Lee, Barnes. You get the idea. Many of these have been around a long time and have gone through many editions. It’s a good idea to get the most current edition for the most up-to-date information on bullets and powders.

Aside from the press, you will absolutely need a set of dies for the caliber that you will be reloading. Another necessity is a powder measure of some sort to dispense accurate and repeatable quantities of powder into your cases. To keep the powder measure honest, you need a scale to measure the exact weight that your powder measure is dispensing. There is a lot of difference of opinion about how frequently you weigh the powder being thrown by your measure. Certainly you will want to measure several throws in a row to dial in the correct amount as you are setting up your production run. After you get acceptable and repeatable results, some folks weigh one throw out of ten while others weigh one throw out of a hundred. Your choice.

If you’re going to be reloading rifle cartridges, there are other tools specific to that which you’ll need. I’m talking about case trimmers, chamfer and deburring tools, case lube and pads, and so forth.

We all make mistakes, so everyone needs a bullet puller to help in disassembling rounds when you’ve already seated the bullet but need to take the bullet off safely to get at the powder inside the case.

And I haven’t even gotten into stuff you’ll want to buy to clean your used brass. But this should get you going. The folks at your local gun shop can help steer you in the right direction. If you prefer mail order or online shopping, sites like Brownell’s have a lot to offer.

Hi
Phil Hovatter
I love Hunting.I love to know hunting blog and article.Try to support the hunting people for the better information.If you are a reloader the you should know the relaoding press types as like Single Stage,Turret Press,Progressive Reloading Press
Thank you